Gisby, who had just placed his order at a Starbucks in the
mall, died at the scene. The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that the suspects fled in a Volkswagen Jetta,
and that one suspect was arrested by Mexican police.

Gisby, a well-known drug trafficker, had previously been
targeted in an explosion in Whistler, B.C., in January of this year. At that time Gisby and
another man were camping in an RV in a public parking lot when someone detonated
explosives, apparently trying to kill them. Both victims received minor
injuries in the blast.

Police said then that the explosion was believed to be
gang-related. Gisby had links to both the Hells Angels and Dhak group, and had
been involved in the drug trade in BC for more than 20 years.

The Dhak group
has been the subject of retaliatory hits since last summer's daylight murder in
Kelowna, BC, of Red Scorpion Jonathon Bacon. Hells Angel associate Larry Amero
was also wounded in that shooting.

Canadian police believe the Dhak and Duhre gang, which has
also been the subject of retaliatory hits, are involved in a turf war with
elements of the Hells Angels, the Independent Soldiers, and the Red Scorpions
gang, which is now largely out of commission.

In January of this year the Vancouver gangster Sandip
"Dip" Duhre, 36, was killed in a similar hit to the one that took
Gisby’s life: he was shot to death in a
busy restaurant in Vancouver's Sheraton Wall Centre.

The Dhak group has been around for some time. In 1998 gangster
Bindy Johal was killed in a nightclub. As well, in October 2010, Gurmit Singh Dhak
lost in his life in a targeted hit – the second known attempt on his life.

BC traffickers have been active in Mexico in recent years, but it seems they have met their match in a drug market that is quick to settle scores
violently.

In Mexico, traffickers don’t fail when they try to blow up
their enemies in RVs. That seems almost comical. Instead, they hire a sicario, or assassin, for a few hundred
bucks.

If the sicario
fails, he usually dies, too, so the success rate tends to be very high.

Gisby is the sixth BC man with links to local drug trade who
has been shot to death in Mexico in recent years. The Pacific coast, and
particularly the Puerto Vallarta area, as well as the inland city of Guadalajara,
also in the state of Jalisco, seem to be places of interest for Canadian
traffickers.

This area or plaza,
has historically been controlled by the Pacific/Sinaloa Cartel, which is overseen
by the most wanted man in the Americas, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman.

However, it has been destabilized by Jalisco’s violent and
fast-growing New Generation (“Nueva Generación”) Cartel, as well by the
incursion of the ultra-violent Los Zetas Cartel, which originated in Mexico’s
northeast and Gulf Coast, but is now extending its influence throughout the
country.

The Sinaloa Cartel has been fighting off Los Zetas via a
sub-group of hit-men known as The Resistance (“La Resistencia”). This group is
also sometimes called the United Cartels (“Cárteles Unidos”) because it has
included operatives from the Gulf Cartel and Knights Templar Cartel, all of
whom are united in trying to defeat Los Zetas.

The Banderas bay area of Jalisco, which includes Puerto Vallarta,
Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerias, La Cruz, and Punta Mita at its top, is statistically
a very safe place for North Americans – so long as they stay clear of the drug
trade.

For example, Jacob Semler, 31, of Oklahoma, was robbed and
killed two months ago near Puerto Vallarta and – though little is known of Mr.
Semler or the circumstances surrounding his death – it has been suggested to La politica that it was drug related.

At the time, a private investigator told the family that his
body was found several miles away from Puerto Vallarta. The investigator
theorized that it was the police who had moved the body in order to reduce the
bad publicity for the resort town.

Mr. Semler, who had a wife and child, was working for Puerto
Bahia in La Cruz.

Jacob Semler - still a mystery

La politica made repeated
efforts to try and determine what happened to Mr. Semler, but to no avail. The
murderer has not been caught.

However, one individual claimed to have known Mr. Semler “from my timeshare days”, and asserted that Mr. Semler was a drug user. But this could not
be verified, and no police force has specifically connected Mr. Semler’s death
with the drug trade, as has been done with Mr. Gisby’s killing.

2 comments:

This is a really informative post. Nuevo Vallarta is a great place for a family holiday. You might want to take the family to the dolphin facility and research center or the turtle protection reserve, a great educational excursion. I would like to tell you that you have given me much knowledge about it. Thanks for everything....

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Podcast: Notes From The Underground

In the podcast Notes From The Underground TE Wilson discusses historical and contemporary attitudes toward crime. Each episode features a one-on-one interview that explores a unique topic. Interviewees include authors, experts, and individuals with personal experiences of crime. These podcasts were originally broadcast through the facilities of Trent Radio in Peterborough, Canada.

Mezcalero, a Detective Sánchez novel

Bicultural and transgender, detective Ernesto Sánchez seeks a missing Canadian woman on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Moving uneasily in a world where benign tourism co-exists with extreme violence, he becomes a pawn in a shadowy power-play between corrupt police and drug cartels. Forced to make hard choices – desperate, wounded, and friendless – Sánchez takes refuge in the lawless mountains of Oaxaca. And discovers his fate.

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“T.E. Wilson has crafted a terrific, terrifying and yet sensationally witty portrait of modern Mexico. Detective Sánchez is irresistible. You won’t soon forget his journey through that unpredictable jungle that is Mexico today.”